Homeward bound — playoffs too?

They’ll also get a chance to rest up and watch the other teams in the division catch up on the schedule, as the Rampage will play Saturday night against Rockford, and then wait another week before playing Grand Rapids on March 7.

Then, they’ll get the Ice Hogs back six days later and Houston the next night.

Let me do the math — that’s four games in 18 days, as the team will be off for three additional nights after the Houston match up.

A good time to recover from the 26-day roadie, a true road trip since the team stayed away the entire time, as opposed to season’s past, when the team could break up the trip. That didn’t happen this season, and they ended up 4-5-2-2 for the endurance test.

SPINA ON TOP

David Spina, thanks mainly to a four-assist game against the Atlantic Division leading Providence Bruins, led the team in scoring for the trip with 16 points, including four goals.

Kevin Porter had a nice trip as well, going 5-8-13 for the goal scoring lead.

Jeff Hoggan came back from Phoenix and has found the net in the last three games, scoring four goals.

It will be nice to see Kyle Turris make his AT&T Center debut Saturday if he’s not recalled by the Coyotes. Turris made a big splash with four goals and three assists in his first five games. But he’s been held off the score sheet the last four games.

Also nice to see Al Montoya playing better in net. For the first time this season, Montoya has posted two wins in a month, going 2-1-1 with a 3.16 goals against. Although that is way too generous in today’s pro game, that 90 percent save percentage is looking good.

Joel Perrault has four assists in his last three games and has posted a helper in four of five since his assignment to SA in mid-February. Perrault has always had a professional attitude about his up and down career, but this demotion had to be a tough one, especially since he scored a couple of nice goals for the offensively-challenged parent club.

MILITARY ON DISPLAY

Looking forward to watching hockey live again, although I had a chance to check out the Chicago Blackhawks-Dallas Stars game Saturday at the American Airlines Center. Had a chance to visit with former Rampage, Dragons and Iguanas coach, John Torchetti, who is an assistant with the playoff bound Blackhawks. There’s a story in that visit coming up.

But the Rampage have always been sensitive to the military throughout the team’s history and this season it looks no different.

The Rampage will wear their usual cammie uni’s and T-Bone will buff up for the event. (Please T — we don’t need to see those plastic abs Saturday, eh — keep the jersey down for the sake of all that’s holy). Over the years, the team has collected over $76,000 for military charities.

The Stars did a real nice thing at their game — they honored the “Military Family of the Game” sponsored by one of the radio stations. The cute in-house announcer introduced the family during a timeout, gave some bio info for the family and put them in the spotlight. The crowd reacted very nicely as well, responding with a standing ovation!

GOTTA BE REAL

Ok, what’s the chance of the Rampage playing on tax day?

Not good, but there are possibilities.

In the same 18-day span that the Rampage play four games, Quad Cities will play 10 times — four at home.

The good news is all of those games are interdivisional contests, with three against Houston. The Flames, who are 6-0-1-0 in their last seven, will not play the Rampage again, and if the Herd miss the playoffs, they might just point to the two losses to the Flames on the trip as the main culprit.

Other divisional foes play less games, but each has their share of challenges, with Iowa and Peoria the choices here to falter and thus give the Rampage some standings daylight.

Peoria hits the ice for 7 games in the next 18 days, but have two games each, on the road, in Manitoba and Grand Rapids. Good luck to Davis Payne with those contests.

The Chops also will skate out of the visitors locker room for a six-game trip with two games each in Milwaukee, Quad Cities and Chicago after hosting the Admirals Friday and Saturday nights.

Meanwhile, the Wolves have 8 games during the Rampage lull, five at home, so there doesn’t appear to be many pointless nights in Chicago’s future.

And Houston plays 8 games during that stretch, while Rockford has seven games, six of which are on the road.

The bottom line though … the Rampage have four games in the next 18 nights and THEY MUST COME OUT OF THIS STRETCH 4-0-0-0 if they hope to make the final four from the West.

Reason? They trail fourth place Rockford by nine points. The Hogs have also played five fewer games. If they just split those games, that nine point edge inflates to 14.

That’s a ton of points to overcome.

Also, two of those four games are against the Ice Hogs. They MUST win those two outright — no overtime or shootout wins. And let’s say, for the sake of argument, the Page does just that.

But even with those two wins, they still are miles out of the playoffs.

Any way you look at it, it will take an extraordinary effort from the Rampage, and a few blown tires by other divisional rivals.

ONE MORE THANG

Nice to sit here, watching the Center Ice Package (only 79 bucks through the Stanley Cup Playoffs) and seeing Joe Callahan and Bill Thomas playing significant minutes in the Islanders/Penguins game. Now if I can only find a way to get my TV to work in high def!